What do the colors mean in the Storm Relative Motion images?
The colors are the different radial velocities measured by the radar. In velocity images, red colors indicated wind moving away from the radar with green colors indicating motion toward the radar. The transition zone between incoming and outgoing winds are indicated the gray-ish colors between the two. Finding Tornadoes If you see a small area of strong positive velocities (reds) right next to a small area of strong negative velocities (greens), this may be the signature of a mesocyclone–a rotating thunderstorm. Approximately 40% of all mesocyclones produce tornadoes. 90% of the time, the mesocyclone (and tornado) will be spinning counter-clockwise. If the thunderstorm is moving rapidly toward or away from you, the mesocyclone may be harder to detect. In these cases, it is better to subtract off the mean velocity of the storm center, and look at the Storm Relative Mean Radial Velocity. Storm Total Precipitation Just as the name implies, this is an image of the estimated accumulation s
